The New Year Resolutions of an Organiser

If you're looking for a new year resolutions example then look no further than this: the new year resolutions of an Organiser! If you want to go into 2024 with a well-organised plan for achieving your resolutions, then read on and make sure to download our editable New Year Resolutions planner!

Why do some people keep their new year resolutions while others of us seem to be incapable of getting past the end of January with our good intentions? Well, to quote Boss Baby:

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail!

That's right, a cartoon baby in a suit can teach us a lot about new years resolutions. Those who manage to keep them going do four key things:

1. Audit - understand where they are at currently
2. Dream - imagine where they want to be
3. Plan - make realistic, small steps plans to getting there
4. Act - do the steps in their plan

What are the New Year Resolutions that are right for you? AUDIT

The internet is full of suggestions and ideas for new year resolutions, but how do you know what's really important for you? With so many different things you could change about yourself and your lifestyle, how do you go about prioritising? Simple. You have to start by taken a long, hard, honest look at yourself in the mirror and work out exactly where you are at now. Think through the six key areas in your life - purpose, passions, people, body, mind, soul - and dig deep to find the facts of what's what. Once you've got the facts nailed, you'll be able to take a look at what actually needs prioritising. Need some help doing this? Request a copy of our handy guide here!

New Year Resolutions Ideas - DREAM

Once you have a clear idea of where you stand now, the next step is to dream big about where you want to be in the future. In this step, it's important to not let yourself immediately start thinking about the practicalities of your dreams - banish all 'but how can I do that in one year?' thoughts from your mind and let yourself go! Try to tap into your innermost dreams and desires here. Try thinking about what you would do/change if you had a magic wand or Aladdin's lamp. It can be helpful to think in terms of who you want to be (how would you describe your future self, or how would you want someone to describe you to another person this time next year) rather than what you want to do. There's plenty of time to translate all these dreams into reality in the next step! Need some space to sketch out all those big dreamy dreams? Use our handy Organiser's Guide to New Year Resolutions!

How to make good New Year Resolutions - PLAN

Want to lose weight, quit smoking or drinking, go to the gym five times a week, learn three new languages, travel the world, get a new job, quit having sugar on your cereal AND keep a pot plant alive for a whole year? Chances are you're being unrealistic. Try turning those outcomes into inputs - that's the way to make a successful plan. So, instead of 'I want to lose 2 stone' try 'I'm going to eat 5 home-cooked meals a week and not drink alcohol during the week'. The difference between the first goal and the second? You can't control the first, but you can control the latter. Don't believe me? Think it through. Can you speak directly to your body and tell it to burn excess fat instead of using newer energy sources? Can you speak to your kidneys and tell them to stop retaining so much water? No, of course not. There are so many variables to the goal 'lose weight'. But you absolutely can control some of the inputs that will have an impact on that goal such as eating healthy home-cooked meals, or drinking less alcohol. Plan to do actions that are 100% within your control.

The other key thing with a plan is to start small. Don't set yourself up to fail. If you only make a teeny tiny 0.1% improvement every day then by the end of the year you will have improved by 36.5% - over a third of the old you will be different. Achieving something gives us a positive feeling, which in turn makes us more likely to try and achieve the next thing. When we set plans that are too far out of our reach, we instead get a negative feeling which then leads to us not trying the next step to avoid the pain of that negative feeling. You can always revisit your plans and add additional steps if you're making great progress.

Click here to get a copy of our Organiser's Guide to New Year Resolutions if you'd like someone to jot down your plans - it's an editable PDF, don't you know!

If you only make a teeny tiny 0.1% improvement every day then by the end of the year you will have improved by 36.5%

How to keep New Year Resolutions - ACT

So you've better understood your new year resolutions priorities from doing a life audit, and you dreamt big on who and where you want to be in the future. You've then taken those dreams and turned them into actionable steps. Hopefully you requested a copy of our Organiser's Guide to New Year Resolutions to help you do this. Now you need to ACT on those plans! To help you do this, we've taken the word ACT and turned it into a handy little mnemonic. You're welcome.

A - Accountability

We are strange creatures, us humans. Try as we might to convince ourselves to do something, we are far more likely to do it if we have told someone else that that is what we plan to do! Pick a reliable, non-judgemental friend or family member and share your copy of the Organiser's Guide to New Year Resolutions (did we mention that it's editable!?). Not got anyone you trust with this stuff? Share it with us!

C - Calendar

The best way to follow a plan is to carve out dedicated time to the actions we said we would do. So, take a look back at your plan and work out how much time you need to do the action. For example, if you wanted to speak a new language by the end of the year, you might have made a plan to do an online course three times a week for 30 minutes. Put those 30 minute segments in your calendar! Block the time out - you'll be much more likely to do it if you know when it's going to happen.

T - Test

Talking of calendars, put in a regular, repeating time to check in with your new year resolutions plan and see where you're up to. This could be the end of each month or each quarter. Look back at what you said you would do and if you're off track, don't beat yourself up! That's just a waste of energy, and won't actually change anything. Adjust your plan if necessary and crack back on with your small achievable steps first thing tomorrow!

We hope this essay on the new year resolutions of an Organiser has been helpful! Happy New Year and best wishes for 2024 from all of us here at Collctiv!